To rehash the opening lines of my Avengers review from 2012, a superhero film is nothing but people dying, buildings crumbling, the heroes rising and the villains falling. It is the same and will continue to remain the same. Avengers have a certain air of magnanimous extravagance around them, because you get six nine saviors in cloaks and costumes, and a few more waiting to climb the ranks.

Also, what separates this collection of superheroes from X-Men is the lack of a common lineage shared between the unearthly egos. Every Avenger has a different story to tell, and some of their respective pasts are touched upon in this installment of a most certain trilogy. These flashbacks and peeks into their psyches are assisted by the introduction of Pietro/Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) as the American hating or rather Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) hating twins from Sokovia.

Joss Whedon tries to recreate either the origins–like in case of Black Widow–or a vantage point of the superhero characters’ demons and fears. Stark and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) get their hands on the scepter which was previously wielded by Loki, and start deciphering what exactly it holds. They realize there’s an artificial AI in the scepter, and in an amusing scene, JARVIS and ULTRON, two AIs hold a conversation between them. And they are perfectly sentient and verbal, unlike C3PO and R2D2.

In an Empire Strikes Back-esque turn of events, the ULTRON raises an army of innumerable other flying androids or robot drones to cause human extinction and to neutralize the greatest force which could stop them i.e. the Avengers. What ensues is an exhilaratingly long battle and the Avengers falter, only to regroup and fight the robotic armies. Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) gets the due attention which his character was deprived of in the last film. Not just attention, he also gets a fun chemistry with another sharp and agile team member.

Age of Ultron successfully charmed me with all its wit, even in the scenes where the supposed world-saviors are getting their ass handed to them on a platter. The film retains the zany nature of the earlier film and goes on to build an unbelievably relatable universe. It’s not relatable in terms of the destruction and aerial-duels between flying harnesses, it’s relatable with respect to a feeling of familiarity where the silly one-liners never run out.

Unlike last time, the heroes have more subtext in the current film, as against requiring the viewer to be completely abreast with the individual films of Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. The premise for a dark film on the origins of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is finally laid in place. Again, unlike Empire Strikes Back, there is never a dearth of emerging helping hands for the floundering A-team. The suspension of disbelief hardly ever kicks in.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is an escapist’s paradise with incredible technical finesse. Every frame is almost a feat of technological wonder and sheerly spectacular. If you want to live in a dystopian universe, witness to superhumans guarding it from extraterrestrial and inhuman villains, substantial destruction and civilian deaths are minor casualties you’ll have to live with.